Brooke Mulford Update

Well, Tuesday my little girl reached milestone day we feared might never come. She started kindergarten! She fared much better that day than Mommy and Daddy but isn’t that always the way? We celebrated that night with dinner at Market Street with Brooke’s cousin Cassidy who is, much to our delight, a freshman this year at SU. Thursday of this past week she also started taking dance (ballet & tap) with her buddy Jordan and already wants me to sign her up for the next session!

September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month and each year in Philadelphia there is a 5k walk and 2k Family Fun Walk called the Four Seasons Parkway Run. This event is held to raise much needed funds to support children’s cancer research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) where Brooke has received all of her treatments for Stage IV high risk Neuroblastoma. Each year, more than 8,000 children across the US are diagnosed with cancer.

CHOP has the nation’s largest program for pediatric cancer patients. CHOP has also established the nation’s first cancer survivorship program to study the long-term effects of treatment. For the 2nd year, we have entered a team called “Team Brooke” and this year Brooke will be able to join us and will participate in the 2k Family Fun Walk! Here are some of the details:

When: Sunday, September 26th, 2010 (rain or shine)
Where: Four Seasons Hotel, One Logan Square, 18th St. and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
Time: 7am- Registration opens
8:30am – 5k Run begins followed directly by the 2k Family Fun Walk
Following the race will be a lavish post-race buffet right on the Parkway, catered by Four Seasons!

If you are interested in joining our team and walking or running with us please click on this link: http://giving.chop.edu/goto/teambrooke2010 and click on “Join Team”
Or if you would like to make a donation: click on the link http://giving.chop.edu/goto/teambrooke2010 and then click on the button that says “Donate to Team Brooke” or if you would like to for your donation to help a team member reach their individual fundraising goal than 1. click on that team members name 2. Click on the red button that says “Donate Now” and then follow the instructions from there.

Also, to coincide with Pediatric Awareness Month, a media story was done involving our Super Brooke and our dear friends at Wonder Capes. Please check out the video and blog on all 3 sites (all the same story) if you can and comment on each about the lack of funding for pediatric cancer research.
1. http://bit.ly/aIOi50 Go Inspire Go
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toan-lam/wonder-capes-inspire-comf_b_706808.html Huffington Post
3. Deepak Chopra's site, Intent.com http://www.intent.com/toanoo/blog/wonder-capes
Here are some facts about pediatric cancer:
*Childhood cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death in children in the U.S. Cancer kills more children than any other disease, more than asthma, cystic fibrosis, congenital anomalies, diabetes, and pediatric AIDS COMBINED!
*Every 3 ½ minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer!
*Every 4 hours a child loses their life!
*Approximately 7 children die each day from cancer!
*One of every five children diagnosed with cancer will not survive! With stage IV NB it is more like 3 out of 5 won’t survive!
*Cancers in children are highly aggressive. At the time of diagnosis, 80% of children and teens have cancer that has already metastasized or spread, compared to only 20% of adults. Early detection of childhood cancer is extremely difficult.
*Research on adult cancers does not generally help cure childhood cancers, as the cancers children get are different types from those that strike adults.
*The U.S. Government spends less than 3% of the total cancer research budget on all childhood cancers combined!
Our kids deserve better!
Thank you and God Bless,
Amy